Friday 4 July 2008

TV

8 Out of 10 Cats
6x04 (4/7/08 edition)

Criminal Justice
Part 5 (of 5)
The show with TV's most boring title sequence comes to an end. While justice is served it's pleasingly not a "and they all lived happily ever after" ending -- major characters lose relationships, careers, and even their lives. In spite of a final half hour that show the legal system coming through for Ben, it's too little too late to restore any faith you may have had in it, which was surely shattered by the rest of the series.

Mine All Mine
Part 5 (of 6)
When Mine All Mine first went out, they were offered a fantastic slot (between one of those talent shows and Christmas, I think)... but it was only five weeks and they'd made six episodes. So out went most of part five, with the necessary bits edited into a longer final episode. Hence why I'm seeing much of this one for the first time. Incidentally, Mine All Mine is utterly hilarious and massively underrated, if you ask me.

This Morning
(4/7/08 edition)
A brief and relatively uninformative interview with Doctor Who boss Russell T Davies. It was great when the Dalek woke up though.

Wimbledon 2008
Bits and bobs, but most substantially: half of the more likable Murray brother sadly losing his mixed doubles semi-final; and the end of unseeded Brit Laura Robson beating Romana Tabakova in the girl's semi-final. Tabakova = stroppy Slovak; Robson = amusing and likable. Clearly, if there is a theme to my thoughts on Wimbledon players, it's "be likable". And it helps if you're British.

Fiction

Master of the Future by Brian Augustyn & Eduardo Barreto
(from Batman: Gotham by Gaslight)
Longer sequel to Gotham by Gaslight, which sees a Victorian-era Batman face an airship-owning madman who wants to burn Gotham to the ground. The added length allows Augustyn to develop his story more fully this time, though it still feels as if it's missing most/all of a second act. Barreto's art is more mainstream in style than Mignola's, and he produces some excellent splash pages, but it does make for an interesting contrast: Mignola's almost cartoonish style is on the grittier, more realistic tale, while Barreto's more realistic style covers the more fantastical, cartoonish one. Such is comics, I suppose.

Mouse Guard: Autumn 1152 (aka Mouse Guard: Fall 1152) by David Petersen
Chapters One - Six
Epilogue [the end]
The first collected volume of David Petersen's acclaimed Mouse Guard (currently publishing a second series, with at least three more to follow that). Beautifully drawn and well plotted, if quick to read (while each chapter/issue is a usual 24 pages, they're smaller than normal and filled with bigger, text-light frames).
The collection also includes maps of Mouse Territories and Barkstone, guides to Lockhaven and common mouse trades, a gallery of pinups by "esteemed authors & friends", and... a preface.

24 Hours...

...'til Journey's End!

Days til New York...

8

For a full explanation, please see the start of the countdown.